Main menu

Journalism about pwnage

[TES Lore] Lorekhan #4: The Imperial City and the Empire [Part 3]

Welcome back to Lorekhan! It’s been a bit since I last wrote this series, but now that all my writers have agreed on a set weekly day to dedicate to writing together, I thought this would be a good series to bring back to life. Not going to run out of Elder Scrolls lore or anything, and this is a series I envisioned as being long-running.

The former episodes will also be reformatted for easier reading, and to match writing styles with future episodes.

As a warning, since this covers the Third Era — which has been the most prominent time period in the Elder Scrolls games — do expect spoilers. I will mark paragraphs that contain spoilers with an orange [Spoiler] mark, but if you can’t help yourself, you should probably skip this episode.

War of the Red Diamond

2E 896/3E 0: The Third Era begins once Tamriel is united by Tiber Septim, following the events of HAWKEN In Tamriel. (See previous Lorekhan)

3E 38-121: Many people take their place on the throne of Tamriel. Nothing hugely exciting related specifically to the central Empire here until 3E 121 when Uriel III forcibly takes the Imperial City after the Elder Council chooses Princess Kintyra over him. He replaces his original surname with the Septim name.

3E 121-127: Tamriel is divided by this, and the remaining offspring of the previous Emporer — Pelagius II — Unite different chunks of Tamriel in their cause to control the throne. Princess Kintyra II dies as a prisoner two years into the war, now called the War of the Red Diamond.

3E 127-137: Uriel III is defeated at the battle of Ichidag at the same moment his mother, Potema (also known as the Wolf Queen), was preparing an attack in her own battle with Magnus, one of the three children of Pelagius II. She went berserk and threw down on the weakest flank of Magnus’ army, succeeding in routing his forces. Uriel III, however, had been captured, and was burned alive in his horse carriage by a mob.

Cephorus was proclaimed Emperor, and his sister, Potema, began to lose allies, and instead turned to necromancy to raise an undead army. Potema died during a siege on Solitude, presumably because she forgot to quicksave. You can read about these events in Biography of the Wolf Queen [Read on UESP.net] [Read on Imperial Library]

U Mad Bro?

3E 145-153: Pelagius III comes to power as Emperor, and is generally a nutbasket. After being a nutbasket for a while, he dies, and his wife, Katariah, Duchess of Vvardenfell, becomes the next ruler and Empress. The Elder Council was stubborn under her rule, but she came to be loved by the people as she traveled Tamriel and sought to repair the damage from the previous wars over the throne.

3E 200-202: After Katariah’s death in Black Marsh in 3E 200 during a small skirmish, her son Cassynder takes the throne, but only for two years before he too dies and Uriel Septim IV takes his place.

3E 247-267: Uriel IV dies, and the Elder Council votes to disinherit his son, and instead replace him with Cephorus II, who was previously a Nordic king. Cephorus fights the Camoran Usurper, when he conquers Valenwood and then through Hammerfell. The Usurper is defeated after eighteen years of conquesting, when he encounters a massive naval fleet composed of several armies at Illiac Bay.

3E 268-290: Uriel V comes to power and goes on a conquest on the islands between Tamriel and Akavir, and eventually raises the largest fleet in recorded history up to that time. He uses that fleet to invade Akavir. There’s a failed assassination attempt on him, but he later dies in battle. His son, who’s only five years old at the time, has to wait until he comes of age to take the thrown. Elder Council is still pulling lotsa strings, what’s new.

Familiar Times

3E 307-313: Uriel VI spends his first six years as Emperor by taking pulling the power-balance that the Elder Council holds over to the side of the throne.

3E 320-368: Uriel IV — so many Uriels — dies, and — plot twist — so does everyone else leading up to Uriel Septim VII (yes, the cool one) being born in 3E 346. He is crowned in 3E 368, and continues the unification of Tamriel that the previous Emperor, Pelagius IV, had begun. Jagar Tharn, the Imperial Battlemage, assists with the reunification of Tamriel.

3E 389-399: [SPOILERS FOR TES I: ARENA] Jagar Tharn betrays Emperor Uriel Septim VII and imprisons him in pocket dimension. Uriel VII is imprisoned for a decade before being freed by a champion (the player character) in 3E 399.

3E 414: Vvardenfell is opened for settlement. Get hype.

Please note I’m skipping some Morrowind- and Daggerfall-specific details here, to be written about in a later entry.

3E 433:[SPOILERS FOR TES IV: OBLIVION]Uriel Septim VII is murdered while making his escape through a secret tunnel system under the Imperial Prison. His heirs are also murdered. Thus, with the help of the Mythic Dawn cult, gates to Mehrune Dagon’s plane of Oblivion are opened, and the Oblivion Crisis is began.

[SPOILERS FOR TES IV: OBLIVION]This causes the Dragonfires to extinguish since no Emperor sits on the throne. The Hero of Kvatch (player character) helps lay the smackmuffins on Dagon’s forces, and Martin Septim (a surviving relative to Uriel VII) and the Hero of Kvatch make their way to the Imperial City. Martin transforms into an incarnation of the Avatar of Akatosh, and defeats Dagon, resealing the breach between Nirn and Oblivion.

Outro

Thanks for reading this! I’m glad to be back to writing this series *glances at 6 opened browser tabs on TES lore* THIS IS WHAT YOU MAKE ME DO, READERS. I’d like to thank the UESPWiki and the Imperial Library for assisting my research greatly.